Friday, February 09, 2007

The Weekender: 2/9/07-2/11/07

(with contributions from SR and DL)

FRIDAY

The Party w/ Sober, Select, Prince William (Zubar): Three genre-hopping DJs whose sets tend to emphasize, hip-hop, hyphy, bmore, touches of dubstep, house, late 80s old school and just about everything else under the moon. Come see why these guys are so in demand that I can't even creep around the food court at North Park without hearing one of their sets blasting from a store.Octopus Project/Kingfish /Tha Bracelets(Hailey's): Octopus Project is somewhat of an Austin institution and I'm sure the show will be packed. This gem from the Kingfish bio confused me: "Kingfish challenged the standards of Rock music...". Interesting. I wasn't aware rock music had any standards. Judging by most of these Myspace pages, you'd be hard pressed to make such a case. If there is in fact a standard, I'm not sure if this is the group to "challenge" it. I can only guess. See for yourself at Hailey's tonight. The impossibly happy Bracelets also play and are sure to play a typically energetic live set.

Sarah Reddington/Teenage Symphony (Secret Headquarters): Teenage Symphony will be an excellent fit for the very intimate Secret Headquarters. Last time the group performed it was a semi-acoustic show on the floor of Club Dada. So tonight they won't even have a stage to shun. At their best, the band's sad almost creepy psyche-pop is the sonic equivalent of a manila paper watercolor soaked with a child's tears. Trust me. Sarah Reddington's melodic country rock will be a good pairing.The Baptist Generals/Theater Fire/Bosque Brown/Doug Burr (Granada): Some heavy hitters at the Granada tonight with a headliner that has kept everyone waiting on a followup full-length for I believe, about seventeen years now. Bosque Brown is like a Fort Worth Sam Phillips, and that's okay since I'm big fan of both. Theater Fire might be the only local group to play both the Granada and 1919 Hemphill. Correct me if I'm wrong.Bob White and his F-Electrics/Ghost of Ria.../Deep Snapper (Rubber Gloves): Deep Snapper has members of Birth to Burial and is definitely one of the better local no-bullshit rock groups. They utilize a lot of up-tempo chug rhythms, cutting guitars and group shouting all delivered in a very sophisticated style completely devoid of any anthemic cheesiness.

SATURDAY

Lemonheads/Vietnam/ The Hero Factor (Palladium Ballroom): Does anyone remember what a cultural phenom Dando was in the 90's? Hard to imagine now. I remember a Rolling Stone magazine article where he gave advice on how to smuggle drugs on airplanes. What an arrogant jerk. Anyways, he could definitely write a memorable melody but it's strange to find myself typing about the Lemonheads in 2007. I remember Vietnam playing with The Rapture about 5 years ago, and I'm surprised it's taken so long for them to get this popular. If anyone knows anything about the Palladium as a venue, let us know.Current Leaves/Stanton Meadowdale(J&Js-9pm-free): Interesting setting for the polished Current Leaves to perform. I always prefer to see bands out of their element.Raised By Tigers/The Grass Fight (Secret Headquarters): Raised by Tigers is a veteran Denton group with pleasantly soft vocals over some complex, almost-virtuoso backing tracks. The Grass Fight are yet another group of dark brooding rock influenced by mopey 80's keyboard bands. I'm sure Ian Curtis relives his hanging for eternity because of how much he's mimicked. Thanks, bands.Druggist/Sean Kirkpatrick /Tame...Tame and Quiet (The Cavern): Cue hail from Austin and play atmospheric "chamber rock" and a lot of weepy violin. Sean Kirkpatrick is from The Paperchase but you wouldn't know that from his somewhat subdued sets. Tame...Tame and Quiet rock at such weird angles you'll have to cock your head to understand it. But it's a really enjoyable confusion. NOTE: Cue is not on the bill, so that part about them is just like a joke and shit.Happy Bullets/Red Monroe/Hendrick/J Price (Wreck Room-Ft. Worth): Two darlings of the Dallas scene drive all the way to Fort Worth for this one. Red Monroe always seems to pick up glowing reviews. Catch this show at a venue that's supposedly shutting down, meaning Fort Worth is not immune from the closing venue disease.SUNDAY

it gets confusing sometimes... the palladium, the angora... i think i have been to the palladium but don't really remember it, although i may be getting it confused with the angora- i remember seeing beastie boys and sonic youth together at one of those venues a long long time ago i think it was for the dirty tour? anyone remember?

Yeah. Dirty tour, '92, Agora Ballroom (no "n"). Folks hanging from the rafters, perhaps during Youth Against Fascism. I believe Pavement opened. It was somewhere in North Dallas. Which may as well have been OKC for a south FW kid back then.

Thanks to everyone that came out to SHQ tonight, & especially thanks to the bands for being awesome people.Both Teenage Symphony and Sarah Reddington really impressed me tonight - very good sets. And I usually hate everybody's band.

"The Grass Fight are yet another group of dark brooding rock influenced by mopey 80's keyboard bands."

There isn't even a keyboard in the band.

I remember when I read an album review in Readymade of Sonic Youth's "Sonic Nurse." It said something like, "...'Peace Attack' features Kim Gordon yelping..." This was such a strange experience for me because I was listening to the song at the time, Thurston was singing and it was one of the more mellow songs on the album. I kept waiting for Kim to make an appearance, but she never did. I realized at that moment that Readymade should stick to making crafts.

I didn't say they had a keyboard. I said they're influenced by bands that did use a lot of keyboard. You're kind of right. I should have used a different descriptive word for those bands, but I stick by my point regarding their influences.

the palladium was way too big for that show. it's a 2000+ seater, and about 300 people showed up. vietnam were excellent despite their set being interrupted by the fire alarm, which was set off by all the pot being smoked by the lemonheads in their dressing room.

the lemonheads were meh....vietnam was good too bad they couldn't play more...i could've zoned out to their stuff for longer...i'll definitely see them next time they come through. the new album is really great...i even bought myself a shirt!

i saw them out later at monkey bar and meant to ask them if they'd be playing sxsw but they were too busy talking nonstop to some brunette fox to be bothered with questions...that and they were clearly wasted and two of them looked like they were about to get into a brawl outside.

maybe "jeff" was that guy I saw bugging the girl they were there with to go back backstage with them..that was funny. some dude followed her from the bar -where we overheard him asking her about them when she was getting a drink- to the door to the backstage area ...walking a couple paces behind her - presumably to pretend he was walking with her....after she walked in the door, he was denied by the big burly guard.

who knew vietnam were such hot items? i remember them playing in denton and no one seemed to care...now there's peeps clamoring to be part of the entourage? ah, such is dallas.